Tubi’s Kudzi Chikumbu Is Creating a ‘Bridge to Hollywood’ for Creators

Kudzi Chikumbu didn’t just jump aboard the creator bandwagon. Before he was Tubi’s Vice President of Creator Partnerships or TikTok’s Global Head of Creator Marketing, Chikumbu was a creator himself. It’s that understanding of what it’s like to be in the digital trenches, so to speak, that makes him well-positioned to shepherd creators to through this next era: collaborating with Hollywood.

“When I got my first job, which was at Deloitte in South Africa, I was an accountant by day and a YouTuber by night,” Chikumbu told TheWrap as part of the Office with a View series. “I don’t even think we called them creators. You were just people on YouTube who made stuff. I realized pretty quickly that there’s something here.”

Chikumbu’s desire to work in the intersection between media and technology led him to Stanford after Deloitte, where he earned his MBA. While there, he learned about Musical.ly, the lip-synching app that would become TikTok. For eight years Chikumbu helped to develop TikTok’s creator partnerships team. But after leaving the company in the summer of 2024 and taking a year to reflect, Chikumbu decided it was time for a new challenge at Tubi.

“We think of ourselves as a bridge to Hollywood for creators,” Chikumbu said of the free ad-supported streamer owned by Fox.

In his role at Tubi, Chikumbu oversees the streamer’s partnerships with top creators like Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast (462 million YouTube subscribers), and Alan’s Universe, aka Alan Chikin Chow (99 million YouTube subscribers).

The platform now boasts more than 10,000 episodes of creative content from roughly 100 creators, which is more than almost any other major streamer. He’s also behind the Tubi for Creators program, which is developing original movies from Kinigra Deon (5.5 million YouTube subscribers) as well as DC Young Fly, Chico Bean and Karlous Miller of 85 South Show (3.4 million Instagram followers). Here’s how Chikumbu learned to navigate these two worlds while helping to transform Tubi into one of Hollywood’s hottest creator hubs.

TheWrap: How do you think being a creator has influenced how you’re able to work with creators?

Kudzi Chikumbu: It’s given me greater empathy [for creators]. You need to understand what it means to come up with an idea, post it and get feedback. Maybe it does well. Most likely it flops or hopefully not. But then having to do that again, it takes creative grit. Having done that myself, I’m able to have a conversation that’s not just “You should make a video.” It’s “You should take care of yourself and make stuff you really like so that you’re authentically you but you have the fuel to keep creating.”

Being a creator myself also makes me excited to do the job. Of all the jobs I’ve had, it’s who I really am. I talk about how people should live their authentic lives. Doing the work is me truly living my authentic life.

How can you tell which creators would be a good fit for the Tubi for Creators program?

Strong engagement is one. But two is people who can tell great stories or make great formats. Not every creative can do that. If you’re doing a day-in-my-life or a get-ready-with-me, it’s really hard to think through a half-hour format or write a movie.

Then there’s our Tubi fandom. Our users are super multicultural. We talk about a lot of rabbit holes and fandoms that exist, things like true crime, sci fi, the world of Black entertainment, thrillers, outdoor content. There’s so much. So I’m trying to match those three. Does this creator have an engaged following? Can they make something that can stand alone in streaming? And then do they match that fandom?

Then there’s a layer, which is the magic. Do they stand out? I’m looking for authentic creativity. I’m not giving notes on your creativity, so you need to have that thing that cuts through. It could be an interesting message, an interesting style, but it’s something that’s a little bit different.

What is it like coaching creators through the Hollywood model? They’re coming from a world where they are in control, and they don’t have nearly as much control when the production gets bigger.

We’re looking for people that have those Hollywood aspirations, have shown traction making that content and now want to bring it to a platform with 100 million monthly active users. For some creators, they already have that. So like Joey Graceffa, who brought “Escape the Night” Season 5 exclusively to Tubi, or Kevonstage (Kevin Fredericks), who is an amazing comedian that made “Safe Space” exclusively on Tubi first, they already have that ability. That type of creator is easy.

Then there’s a type of creator who has the right thinking but doesn’t have the ability. Our job then is to be like, “OK, to be on streaming, you need to think through narrative.” How do you think things through episodically or as a standalone piece that’s still evergreen? It needs to be a minimum length. We can be flexible with that, but I think in terms of half hours. Part of the work we do with some creators is connecting them with our development team to give them those tips, but we’re not directing the content because we really want them to have creative freedom.

What does the ownership model look for Tubi? Are you working out any deals where there are bigger partnerships with certain creators or things of that nature?

With Tubi for Creators, we’re really focused on creator-led content and creators owning their content. It’s almost like we’re giving them a platform to reach this audience, and then sometimes it’s exclusive window of content. So it’s Tubi first, but you still own it for the future.

Have you thought about doing any bigger partnerships? Like Matt Stone and Trey Parker own some of the rights to “South Park” but they have a long-standing deal with Paramount.

Tubi for Creators is about seven months old, so it’s very new. Step one is getting creators on board — so the 10,000 creator episodes — and growing our understanding what’s working for creators and our audience. We’re working on these exclusive windows, which is kind of the first version of any type of deal, and then we want to do more of those. From there we can start to see what can we do that’s bigger. We did the Hartbeat slate of exclusives, so there’s that version, and we’re excited to see that content come out. The road is still long and, depending on what works, we will definitely double down on those creators.

What has the reaction been like from Hollywood? Do you feel like the industry is getting friendlier to creators?

I think it’s a combo. There’s a lot of excitement because our approach is very creator-led and creator-forward, so people from other places have been like, “We’ve been thinking about this” and “That sounds exciting” … That’s one. But there’s still also the “I need to figure out this creator thing” conversation, which boggles my mind. I don’t know how much more there is to figure out. The eyeballs don’t lie; people watch.

Some people are moving fast, and others, they’re still a little cautious, but it’s OK. Our path at Tubi, we want to move fast to bring creators into Tubi and support their creative visions.

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